uutils coreutils has an Incorrect Provision of Specified Functionality Issue in its cut Utility

Description

A logic error in the cut utility of uutils coreutils causes the utility to ignore the -s (only-delimited) flag when using the -z (null-terminated) and -d '' (empty delimiter) options together. The implementation incorrectly routes this specific combination through a specialized newline-delimiter code path that fails to check the record suppression status. Consequently, uutils cut emits the entire record plus a NUL byte instead of suppressing it. This divergence from GNU coreutils behavior creates a data integrity risk for automated pipelines that rely on cut -s to filter out undelimited data.

Basic information

Type
reviewed
Severity
low
Advisory on GitHub
Open advisory ↗
Repository advisory
Source code
Browse source ↗
Published (advisory)
2026-04-22 18:31:46 UTC
Updated
2026-04-30 18:05:53 UTC
GitHub reviewed
2026-04-30 18:05:52 UTC
NVD published
2026-04-22 17:16:43 UTC

EPSS Score

Score Percentile
0.01% 2.16%

CVSS Scores

Base score Version Severity Vector
3.3 3.1
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.

Identifiers

CWEs

CWE id Name
CWE-684 Incorrect Provision of Specified Functionality

Affected packages (1)

Vulnerable version ranges and first patched releases as published by GitHub.

Ecosystem Package Vulnerable range First patched Vulnerable functions
rust coreutils < 0.8.0 0.8.0

References

cvelogic Threat Intelligence